The present invention is directed to installations of rows of recessed fluorescent lighting fixtures and to a method of assembling same wherein lighting fixtures are mounted on rails or tracks and interconnected with rigid hollow conduits which carry wires from one light fixture to another.
In conventional recessed lighting systems, the lighting fixtures are mounted along the ceiling supporting rails. In order to assemble such systems, each lighting fixture is mounted on the rails, with one of two adjacent fixtures placed in a predetermined desired position. Thereafter, a rigid conduit having threaded ends is inserted into an end plate of the lighting fixture having a punch-out aperture therein. Two lock nuts are threaded on the threaded ends with the end plate of the lighting fixtures therebetween and tightened. The adjacent lighting fixture is then slid into place with the rigid conduit passing through an aperture in its side plate with the same lock nut mounting. This adjacent lighting fixture is then clamped into its position. This procedure is followed for each lighting fixture along the track until all of the lighting fixtures that are required for the installation are fixed in place. The electrical conductors are then passed from fixture to fixture through the conduit connections.
The disadvantages of the conventional lighting fixture system and method of assembling same is that if it is desired to remove or merely move one of the fixtures in a line, all of the fixtures have to be unclamped to do so. This makes any such readjusting or removal operation a considerable task.